Chapter 73

A Few Days Later...

Vincent was in his room on a certain evening, sketching the picture of Ewatomi on his bed when a knock came from his door. Without lifting his eyes off his sketching book, he permitted the person to come in, thinking it was Sewa, the housekeeper. Suddenly, the door opened to reveal Kikelomo standing in the doorway in a seductive pose. Quickly sitting up and pushing the book under his pillow, Vincent stared at her in surprise. 

"Princess... What are you doing here?" He asked, shocked to see her. He tilted his head to look past her out of the room to see if she had come with anyone else but she was all alone.

"Naughty boy..." Kikelomo said huskily as she sashayed towards him. "You have been avoiding me, haven't you?"

"I told you that we can only meet in the church." Vincent got off the bed now and stood in front of her, ready to politely escort her out. "You are not even supposed to be here..." He warily glanced at the open door again.

"Don't worry your pretty head, no one saw me enter." She assured him.

"But my housekeeper is downstairs preparing my dinner in the kitchen. What if she walks in here and sees you, what do you want her to think? Rumors spread as fast as wildfire; you know?"

"Oh, relax!" She gently shoved him on the chest and he fell back on the bed. "I've just come here to have some fun with you because I've missed you so much." She spread her legs and slowly straddled his thighs.

"Kike..." He gave her a disapproving look now as he propped up on his elbows. "What are you doing? Please don't. This is not appropriate."

"What's not appropriate?" She lowered her head towards his and gently captured his lower lip in a kiss.

He turned his head away, breaking the kiss. "I'm begging you, please stop this and leave now."

"I'm not stopping until you kiss me back." She kissed him again as she caressed his chest. "You have no idea how crazy I'm about you." She sultrily said and when he tried to hold her away from him, she held his jaw in her hand, turned his face to her and kissed him deeply.

He roughly tore his lips away from her, appalled by her persistence. "STOP!" He snapped.

"Make me..." She persisted, giving the side of his face a long lick from his jaw to his temple. "Hmmm...I like the taste of you."

"That's it!" He angrily stated now. "I've had enough of this! If you don't leave, I'll have to summon Sewa to throw you out since it's inappropriate for a man to roughly handle a woman!" As he tried to force her to get off him, she fell on her side on the bed and shifted the pillow and that was when she caught a glimpse of his sketchbook. Pulling it from under the pillow, she took a look at his latest sketch and her eyes instantly went dark with anger. 

"You are sketching Ewatomi?" She asked, her heart seemed to have been ripped in two.

"It's just a sketch, nothing more."

She began to flip the pages when she had had enough of seeing the same face, she spat. "This is nothing?! Why do you have only her sketches? Not even a single one of mine!"

"It's just a sketchbook, Kikelomo!" He retorted. "Besides, I don't see any reason why I should be explaining myself to you!" He tried to snatch the book from her but she quickly yanked it out of his reach and jolted to her feet.

"You are in love with her, aren't you?!" She yelled with anger and tears in her eyes. "I will go any length to do anything for you and this is what you could do for me by sketching my arch-enemy?!"

"Kike, you are yelling, please, keep your voice down." He told her quietly.

Suddenly, she held the book in both hands and tore it into four pieces and Vincent gaped at her in shock. "I'm a very jealous lover, Vincent and I'll never share you! Not with her and not with anybody else!" She vehemently stated after crumpling the book in both hands and flinging it on the floor. "You are mine and no one else can have you! For hurting me this bad because of that girl, I shall do what I should have done to her a long time ago!"

"And what's that supposed to mean?" Vincent asked in dread.

"You'll see! She'll join your stepmother!" She threatened. "I shall make hers slower and agonizing!"

"What! I didn't even tell anyone about my stepmother's death! How did you know that?!" He asked in surprise.

"I'm Kikelomo!" She bent down and hissed at his face. "And I take what I want! Including you!" She angrily poked his finger with a finger, turned and stalked away. When she got to the doorway, she paused, turned to intently stare at the crumpled book on the floor and it suddenly blazed up in flames, making Vincent jump away from it in shock and riveting his gaze of disbelief at Kikelomo.

Giving him a sinister half-smile, she said, "Now you know what I'm capable of." Then she turned and left. 

When she was gone, Vincent quickly grabbed a jug of water off the table and emptied it on the book, dousing the flames. Still shocked by what had just happened, he slipped off the bed and sat on the floor, his arms on his raised knees as he helplessly stared down at his burnt book in despair.

                                                                                       ★★★

After dinner, Gideon got into bed and since he was idle, he propped his upper back on a pillow against the wall then decided to do the thing he enjoyed doing most. Taking off his boxers and kicking it away, he wrapped his right hand around his lip dick, reached for a jar of Vaseline with the index finger of his left hand, coated it all over the head of his dick then relaxed and slowly began to stroke himself with his hand, closing his eyes and enjoying the feeling of his firm hand when he felt the bed compress a bit from a weight then he felt a hot breath against his hand and dick.

When he opened his eyes, he jumped in alarm when he saw Ifede crouched over his legs, sniffing his dick and inhaling with a smile on her face. Quickly covering his dick with his hands, Gideon stared at her in shock. 

"What are you doing here?!" He asked, glancing at his bolted door. "How did you even get in here again?!" He demanded, flustered.

She only smiled. "It doesn't matter how I got in here but I told you that I'd come again, didn't I?"

"Listen, the Parish priest almost caught me the last time you are here, so please, leave already!" Gideon said.

"No... I'm not going to let you keep all the fun to yourself..." She said in a sultry tone. "How about we do this together?" Before he could say anything, she yanked away her upper wrapper and let her perky breasts bounce free, making him swallow whatever word he was about to say as he gaped down at her chest in awe.

"You have got the most beautiful breasts I've ever seen." He said, transfixed by the sight of her boobs.

"That's the more reason why you should taste them." She answered and began to gently caress his lower lip with one of her nipples. Unable to stand the teasing anymore, he suddenly wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her against himself before burying greedily his mouth on her breast and capturing the nipple.

 His dick was already hard enough from just the sight and taste of her boobs, so she lifted her buttocks after pushing her lower out of the way then she positioned herself and sunk on his curved shaft, causing him to moan against her nipple.

★★★

The following Wednesday at noonday, Vincent decided to go for a walk. However, on his way, he noticed that he had not seen a single person ever since he left his house, not even the domestic animals who had the habit of roaming around. He also recalled that even Sewa had also failed to show up in his house that morning and neither did she call in sick. 

He knew that on afternoons like this, men, women and boys who had gone to the farm would be returning from their farms by now while young maidens would either be going to or returning from the stream or the bush where they had gone to fetch some firewood, but so far, there was not a single soul on the road. It was completely deserted. 

He put the feeling that something was wrong behind him and continued to walk, hoping to stop by Gideon's and Paul's place later in the day. But being the only one on the road made him quite nervous and he started to have a weird feeling that was being watched but every time he looked around; he was still the only one on the road. 

He however noticed that there were a lot of crows perched on trees on both sides of the bush path and their occasional cawing was irritating. Suddenly, he paused in dread when he heard a rustling in the bush close by as if some wild animal or creature was preparing to pounce out. When Ewatomi finally emerged from the bush instead, he sighed in obvious relief, placing a hand on his chest.

"You gave me quite a scare." He said to her, smiling a bit.

"You would soon stumble upon something that will give you the real scare." She told him. "Who even told you to leave the house? Where are you even going to?" She asked, shaking her head in partial pity and amusement.

"I'm just taking a walk." He answered. "Can't a man take a walk anymore?"

"Didn't you notice anything unusual about today?" She asked. "Or you need a new pair of glasses?"

"Besides the village being so desolate and also as quiet as a graveyard, I noticed nothing else... Did someone very important die?" He asked out of curiosity, wondering if the village was in mourning and he was unaware.

"No one died, but were you not told the dos and don'ts of this village when you arrived?"

"I was, why?" He asked, puzzled.

"You are not supposed to leave your house today; no one is supposed to. Today is the Sacred Day for the spirits."

"Oh!" It finally dawned on him now. "Now, I get it. I was beginning to wonder if a war was coming and everyone fled overnight. I should head back home at once." He started to turn around.

"That won't be necessary, you are still at the same risk." She told him. "You never can tell what you might come across on your way back, especially since your spiritual eye is not open yet."

"What do you mean?"

"On this day, there are a lot of malevolent spirits roaming around looking for whom to harm or possess. Since your spiritual eye is not open, it means that you'll be unable to see them...one is even standing behind you right now as we speak now!"

"What! Blood of Jesus!" Vincent suddenly exclaimed in terror, quickly moving away from the spot to stand beside Ewatomi and turning to scan the spot he had just left but he saw nothing. "Did you just say that to scare me?" He asked in doubt, shooting Ewatomi a playful but displeased look.

Ewatomi stared at him in awe. "It's gone! I don't know what you meant by those words you said but the spirit has vanished... But it's best you see them so that you can know when to avoid them. Most of them hate it when you walk through them. If you are willing, I'll take you to where they converge on this day." She offered.

"Where?" He asked.

"First things first." She reached over and placed a cupped hand over his eyes for a moment, then stepped back. "I've just opened your eyes a bit to the supernatural but it will only work if you believe in the supernatural."

When Vincent severally blinked his eyes open, he looked around and realized that the sky had a different color than the blue and white he was used to; the sky of the supernatural was almost too orange. He looked around at the trees and saw spirits he never noticed before, sitting on the branches. He even saw a headless woman casually walk past them, and far away, he saw a spirit bearing some firewood on his feet instead of his head, while he walked upside down on his hands like they were his feet.

"Oh-my-God!" Vincent slowly said, staring in awe and looking all around him. "Is this how the spirit world looks like?"

"Yes." Ewatomi smiled and glanced back as a bushbaby who looked like a midget, suddenly ran across the road and vanished into the opposite bush with a small woven mat under its armpit. "That one is called Egbere." She informed Vincent. "And there's a popular belief among the Yoruba people that anyone who's able to get its mat would forever be fortunate... Come with me." She took his hand and began to lead him away towards the market.

When they reached the market, Vincent was amazed at how busy it was with spirits. The spirits were buying and selling to one another, even though they didn't look like normal people.

"Do they actually eat these things they buy?" Vincent asked as one of the spirits hawking a basket of palm tree worms walked past them.

"Yes, they do." Ewatomi answered. "But what I don't know is if they can actually taste them like humans or have any satisfaction in their bellies." Then she began to point out different spirits and tell their death stories.

 "That one over there was once a palm wine tapper, he fell from his tree and broke his back on a rock, that's why he's back is arched inward. That one over there was a third wife. She committed evil against her co-wives by killing their children, that's why she has the children which she killed sitting on her head and her shoulders; she'll forever carry this burden around. That baby sitting in the stall with her umbilical cord wrapped around its neck was strangled by its own umbilical cord during childbirth. There are just so many stories I can tell you about."

"And how do you know all these things?" He asked.

"I told you I'm not really human but you do not believe me." She playfully punched his arm and he grimaced and rubbed the spot with his hand.

"What makes you think that I do not believe you?"

"I can see it in your eyes, glasses, you think that I'm just making it up. Well, I'm not going to try to convince you any further. Wait until the stroke of twelve midnight when I'll be twenty-five."